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Brooklyn Fruit Store

We've all been told to eat more fruits and vegetables! Maybe it's just me, but did anyone else notice that many fruits and vegetables don't taste and smell like they used to. They look better than ever, but they don't quite have the flavor that they once had. Before, when you cut a tomato in two, the kitchen would be filled with an aroma that you could taste under your tongue. As "yummy" as they look today, I haven't eaten a strawberry with the "right flavor" for years.

Mass production and profiteering has led to companies hybridizing, breeding and "engineering" fruits and vegetables that are preserved to withstand distribution and shelf-life. Everything seems to be sprayed with herbicides and pesticides, injected with hormones or fed with antibiotics these days. The modern production of foods incorporates a wide range of synthetic chemicals, with most of the studies on safety done or supported by the companies themselves. Only recently did we truly begin to do independent scientific studies on food safety. Hmmm! Maybe these studies will reveal why certain disorders such as autism are becoming so prevalent.

Should we be using herbicides, pesticides, hormones, antibiotics and genetically modified food in our diets without understanding their long term effects on both humans and the environment? For example, the pesticide DDT nearly wiped out many species of migratory birds until its use was disallowed in the 1970's. Is the culture of "exploit and profit first, fix later" really sustainable? The world after all is a finite place.